Should You Answer Questions After You are Read Miranda Rights?

February 25, 2010

By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

texasdefensefirm.com

(972) 369-0577

Criminal defense attorneys will universally tell you no — and with good reason.  Prisons are full of people who wish they hadn’t answered questions.

By reading your Miranda warnings, the police are telling you that they have already decided you’re guilty.

At best, they are telling you that they think their investigation may wind-up with you being arrested so they are “crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s.”

“But I’ve got nothing to hide?!?

Maybe so.  But there are some bad assumptions you are making with that good faith rationale.

The main problem is that you are trying to convince someone that has already made-up their mind.  That is like trying to convince the vending machine that stole your dollar to give it back.

Also — you don’t know what the police are looking for with their questions and they do.  They may want just one key admission to satisfy a legal element they may already know but can’t otherwise prove.  You may tell them worlds of information they would have never known and now they’ve got a better case against you that they ever dreamed.  They’re happy letting you think you’re winning them over.

Police bank on the fact most of us were raised to respect and cooperate with authority.  But an officer’s job is to investigate crime and build cases against people.  Either they can prove all the elements of a crime or they cannot.  If they’ve got no evidence of certain elements — the only way they can get it is out of your mouth!  There is no advantage to talking with them — and if there is — there is no harm in consulting a lawyer first!

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. This article is not intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.


They Didn’t Read My Miranda Warnings — How Does it Affect My Case?

February 24, 2010

By Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 369-0577

I’m often told by people that, “they didn’t read me my Miranda warnings.”  Sometimes this is important and sometimes it is not.

What Are Miranda Warnings?

Miranda refers to a 1960’s U.S. Supreme Court case where a conviction was reversed because the police did not advise a Defendant of his rights prior to getting confessions for several offenses.  I’ll spare you the legal treatise on the topic but just understand it’s a highly complicated area of law.

The Significance of Miranda Warnings

Miranda violations can result in excluded statements, admissions or confessions a person may make while in custody.

Your right to remain silent and your right to a lawyer are generally triggered when you are in “custodial interrogation” and you are being questioned by the police or other governmental agency.  Custodial interrogation is too complicated to go over in this brief article but I will say that a typical traffic stop will not qualify as custodial interrogation under the current law in Texas.

Texas has codified Miranda in Article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.  That statute has additional protections above and beyond what Miranda required.  An example of an additional protection is that to be used, an oral confession must be made in the presence of some sort of electronic recording device.

To know how significant a Miranda violation is depends on the facts of the case.  

A hypothetical Miranda violation occurs where someone is handcuffed in the police station under a spotlight with interrogators and admits to a crime.  In that situation, failure to Mirandize someone might result in the confession being tossed-out by a Court.

Obviously real life doesn’t work that way and a Miranda violation may be more subtle or less significant.

Take a DWI for example.  Most of the State’s case will be conduct,  breath, and performance on field sobriety tests.  These things are considered “non-testimonial.”

Even if the police violate Miranda and the person confesses to having consumed alcohol but doesn’t believe they’re drunk — the Miranda violation will have little, if any, impact on the outcome.

Contrast a drug possession case.  In those cases, sometimes the only evidence someone was in possession of contraband such as marijuana are statements or confessions after the drugs are found.  If an officer violates Miranda before a confession is given, the violation may very well change the outcome of the case.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.